


Writing A Canon Newsies Story And Need Random Info, Look No Further

by 2am_Writing_Addict



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: This is literally just historically accurate information so I don’t know how to tag it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 09:40:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2am_Writing_Addict/pseuds/2am_Writing_Addict
Summary: This is my research for my story “Building Love Takes Years When You Have A Secret” and I thought it might help another fic writer.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Writing A Canon Newsies Story And Need Random Info, Look No Further

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Building Love Takes Years, Especially When You Have A Secret](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849416) by [2am_Writing_Addict](https://archiveofourown.org/users/2am_Writing_Addict/pseuds/2am_Writing_Addict). 



> This isn’t edited past making it into sentences because this was first and foremost my research and editing is tiring. Also, there are some author notes that will make sense if you have read my story “Building Love Takes Years When You Have A Secret”.

##### Lamps:

The lamp Spot has would have been a kerosene lamp and the lodging houses would have been lit with gas lamp (I’m proud I know that and gutted that it didn’t fit into the story).

##### Travelling to Sheepshead:

Race would have had to get the Brooklyn & Brighton Beach Railroad to get anywhere near to Sheepshead bay and then would have likely run the final distance from Brighton Beech Racetrack to Sheepshead Racetrack as to save money. He would have had to get on somewhere along the Fulton Street Line (likely the Fulton Ferry Station which was a six minute walk from the Brooklyn lodging house and a similar distance to the Brooklyn Bridge Ramp) and, because of a deal with the King’s Country Elevated Railway, the Fulton Street Line was connected to the Brooklyn & Brighton Beach Railway in 1896 allowing him to take one train the whole way there. The Fulton Street Line became the Brooklyn & Brighton Beech Railroad at Franklin Avenue Station. The ticket for the Brooklyn & Beech Railway (I am unsure if the tickets could also be used for the Fulton Street Line section of the journey) would cost 35 cents for an adult excursion ticket or 25 cents for an adult single ticket unless he could pretend to be under 12 (child exclusion tickets were only 20 cents and child single tickets were only 10 cents). He could also attempt to avoid paying completely but he could be caught. The journey takes 40 minutes to travel on public transport today so whilst I couldn’t find the length of the train journey in 1899, it would have been a lot more possible than walking for 3 hours and 15 mins.

##### Bowery Boys:

The Bowery (the area, not the theatre) had the highest concentration of male prostitutes and the boys were known as Bowery Boys. Women (I couldn’t find the figures for men) could earn $20 to $30 per week (a lot compared to the $12 to $15 earned in factory jobs).

##### Newsie Earnings:

Newsies could make just 1/2 a cent per paper so if they sold a 100 papers every day for a week, they could only make $3.5 a week.

##### Newsie Costs:

Of their $0.5 a day, $0.06 became breakfast, $0.06 became dinner, and $0.06 or $0.10 became a bed for the night (this increased depending on how late they arrive with the 10 cents being a bed with a curtain and the 6 cents being the price of a normal bed if they arrived before 9:00. After 9, it cost 7 cents, and after 10, it cost 11 cents). Lunch at the lodging house was 20 cents therefore the newsies rarely ate there. Therefore a newsie would only have between $0.26 and $0.07 left per day (depending on how well the handled their money) IF they could sell 100 papers.

##### Pitching Pennies:

Pitching pennies is a game played with coins where players take turns to throw a coin at a wall, from some distance away, and the coin which lands closest to the wall is the winner.

##### The Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Aslyum:

The Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum was on 373 Ralph Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11233 (although other sources say Stuyvesant avenue and McDonough street which is close by) and was established in 1878. It’s rather far from the main Brooklyn newsie lodging house—a 1hr 35min walk—however this is the only orphanage or lodging house in Brooklyn which accepted girls at this time. The girls would either walk or catch the train for a cost of 5 cents. I also found that other trains in the city ran from 5am to 10pm so they would have like have had to catch a train during the same times. They would take the BMT Lexington Avenue Line aka the Lexington Avenue elevated by getting on at Chauncey Street station (21 min walk) and get off at Washington St & York St if visiting the Lodging House (5 min walk) or Fulton Ferry for the docks. Both journeys were approximately 5 miles long and the trains ran at 10 miles per hour meaning the journey would take around 30 mins.

##### The Manhattan Orphan Asylum of New York:

The Manhattan orphanage run by the same organisation (which then split to make the Brooklyn branch in 1878) was called the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York and was notoriously strict and so, whilst I found no evidence that Brooklyn was the same, I have made it a little stricter than the lodging houses. The Manhattan orphanage also taught girls domestic skills and boys shoemaking and printing as well as both attending school in the orphanage until the age of 12 then going to local schools and so I have applied this to Brooklyn. There is absolutely no record of the “You can be newsies if you keep up with your work” deal, I just wanted Brooklyn newsgirls so I made that up :P.

##### The Brooklyn Lodging House (The one closest to the bridge):

The main Brooklyn newsie lodging house was at No. 61 Poplar Street and the docks were just 7 minutes walk away (but the docks were rather long so this could be up to a 59 min walk depending on where on the docks they chose).

##### Manhattan Lodging House Dinners:

In 1895, the favourite dinner of the Manhattan lodging house was pork and beans, the second favourite dinner (as of 1892) was corned beef and cabbage. Tea need and butter were served at every dinner. The menu was as follows:  
Monday—Pork and beans  
Tuesday—Beef stew  
Wednesday—Corned beef and cabbage  
Thursday—Pork and beans  
Friday—Fish balls  
Saturday—Pork and beans  
Sunday—Roast beef

##### The Brooklyn Lodging House’s Version of the Superintendent:

In BCAS (Brooklyn Children’s Aid Society (I’m pretty sure that’s right) the Superintendent had a more general role in the society and so the day-to-day running of the lodging house fell to the role known as “matron”, “manager” or “evening-school principle” (which she was as well as being a matron) depending on which newspaper article you read. From 1880 to 1900/early 1901, the matron was Mrs. Lucy M. Kirkby (a.k.a. Mrs. William J. Kirkby).

She was a former teacher and her late husband William Kirkby had been Superintendent (in the same sense as at the Manhattan lodging house) for 14 years (ever since the LH was established). He was superintendent until his death on Jul. 4, 1880 after a long illness. He was said to have been a “kind and dutiful man” and the newsies “deeply mourned” his death. He was just 43 years old.

Mrs. Kirkby, who had been his assistant, took up his role for the next two decades. She passed away Mar. 3, 1902 after being ill for over year (hence she stepped down early. Her obituary in the Brooklyn Eagle (March 7, 1902) included, "Thousands of the unfortunate boys of Brooklyn [...] have reason to remember her with deep thankfulness and affection [...] Small in person, it was a constant surprise that she was able to keep in order so many rough, untrained youths."

The boys called her Mrs. Kirby and so this spelling was sometimes used in newspaper articles.  
Mrs. C. Shaw was an assistant matron at the LH from (at least) Nov. 1896 to Nov. 1898.

##### Exchange Rates:

$1 in 1890 is worth the equivalent of $28.47 today.

##### Sundays:

On Sundays, there was only a morning paper so the newsies could get half a day off.

##### Queens:

Queens Newsie House is made up in my story, I couldn’t find any lodging houses in Queens but I wanted Queens for story reasons.

##### To date:

The word “date,” in the context of relationships can be traced to 1896. “It was first used in a newspaper column in which a young man laments that his girlfriend is seeing other people—that they are "fillin' all my dates," as in "the dates on her calendar."”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope someone finds this useful or interesting :)


End file.
